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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29271033">the route rolls out behind me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/paravel/pseuds/paravel'>paravel</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anthology, Gen, Kalos-chihou | Kalos Region (Pokemon), Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 03:25:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,840</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29271033</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/paravel/pseuds/paravel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lucas visits Coumarine City, Kalos.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. dreams of sea salt and berry stands</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I plan to make each chapter a different scene from the main pokemon games instead of it being one story with just one main character. More tags and characters will be added as I go.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s golden hour. There are countless beams of light streaming in from the window where he rests his head on top of his work papers. It’s a beautiful sunset where the sun is no longer in sight, but the cotton candy clouds are still visible from the window panes. A steaming bottle of moomoo milk sleeps next to him, waiting to be consumed. He always liked to drink beverages from the bottle, although how he was able to heat it up without breaking it was unknown.</p><p>The light forms orange highlights on his books and the stray tufts of black hair. It feels warm on his neck, and the feeling further lulls him to sleep. He doesn’t snore, but his breathing is rugged and there is acid creeping into his lungs from his stomach. It’s like smoke slowly filling his lungs, but he doesn’t know what it is or why it had to disrupt his good dream. As much as he wants to wake up, he can’t. Dread starts to sink in that he might not be able to save himself or even know what is happening before he loses it. He repeats like a mantra inside his head that this is just a dream.</p><p>Before he can suffocate, however, a gust of wind takes him to the main square in Lumiose City, where the Prism Tower stands in all its glory. Except, the sun grows harsher than Sinnoh’s Route 228. It is not a mild beach sun, it is not even a searing sun like in Hoenn’s Desert Ruins, but something much, much worse. Sweat piles at his feet like raindrops. Suddenly, the reflective surface of the Tower sparks into flames, and they quickly begin to eat at the magnificent structure.</p><p>In the distance, he sees his childhood friend at the top of the Tower. When he tries to take out his Togekiss to help, the wind sweeps the pokeball from his hands and rolls it away from him. When he tries to take off and look for help, he realizes his feet have cemented themselves into the rocky ground and won’t budge. He yells for his friend, and all the movement has him falling face first into the hard concrete.</p><p>SMACK</p><p>Lucas wakes up on a rough, rustic bed draped in green and cream-colored striped linen. The pillows are too soft and it makes his head sink when he lies on them. As soon as he opened his eyes he realized he had because his nose was stuffed completely blocked by dust bunnies, making it hard to breathe. He took a gasp as he pushed himself to stare at the ceiling, a dull yellow, and getting duller.</p><p>Are those spiderwebs? Wow, wasn’t this the great Coumarine Hotel?</p><p>He expected more maintenance from at least that much, but other than that and the fact he almost fainted from lack of oxygen (the pillow), he couldn’t complain much. Contrary to popular belief, Lucas liked these retro settings, especially if they were historical. The floor is (as is everything else, it seems) made of wood, and the carpet is maroon with yellowish details and pinkish, deformed heart-shaped thingies, which is… comforting? The only source of light in the room is a wall lamp facing the bed, next to the clock, but that is not even turned on, so the room is dark, save for the dim light of the posts and nightlife shining through from outside.</p><p>He blinked his bleating eyes awake, once, twice, three times, then searched the nightstand next to the bed for his glasses, or the excessive blinking would’ve been futile. As he began to see more clearly with his glasses on, he took a peek out the window, but all he saw was darkness. </p><p>What time is it? Did I really wake up because of that pillow?</p><p>He groaned, noticing his shirt clung to his sweaty back; the sign of a nightmare he could not remember a single figment of. He knew it better than anyone; when Lucas was up, especially if it had been nightmare induced, he would not fall back asleep, and now, situated with his hands on top of the nightstand and his legs folded below him, his feet succumbing to numbness, he knew that he would have to make his way to the restroom to get ready for the day…</p><p>night.</p><p>He glanced at the clock on the wall facing the bed, then stared, scrunching his face with the weirdest expressions just to be able to tell the time… </p><p>Either I need new glasses or this clock really sucks at doing its job. Aha! 4:30 in the morning…</p><p>AUGHUASGHAGHAUAHGAHAUAHGH</p><p>Lucas got himself out of bed after having acid build up in his chest at the nightmare of a time his body had given him to do so. He hoped he at least had the attention to make sure he didn’t break his glasses this time. Accidentally. Again. His friends and coworkers never believed him when he told them he broke them again, accidentally. It was always on purpose. Because Lucas loves to break things on purpose, oh yes, his favorite hobby. Lunatics. He is a danger to himself and others. But anyways. His teeth need brushing. And he would not set his glasses down for any reason this time. That was a horrible idea.</p><p>After washing his face, brushing his teeth, changing, and checking his pokemon in their pokeballs, he looks in the mirror for an anxious three seconds, and uh, why do I care again? But he does. Oh well. If appearances can drive him crazy then it must mean something. He decided they matter a little more than the average person.</p><p>He gets out of the restroom with his hair done in a weird way. Too much gel. He’s experimenting, and tries not to think about it too much, just grabs his keys from the small wooden table in the corner with the chair he nearly broke dangerously close to his knee, and stalks out before an accident happens, or he changes his mind about how shiny his hair is. Because he is a college graduate turned researcher. He can do whatever the fuck he wants, even with a lab coat on (which he doesn’t carry at the moment because how weird would that be, out in the open, like some trainers who also claim to be scientists). No shade to the trainer doctors and engineers, but how the hell do they even find the time to be trainers as well?</p><p>When Lucas used to work as an energy engineer at the Valley Windworks in Sinnoh, he barely had any free time. His boss was often away and would have him work extra time due to the shortage of employees, but all Lucas wanted to do was work on his own personal projects dealing with the development of machinery to capture and distribute renewable energy. In that long year, he didn’t get the chance to work on them as much as he wanted and quit his job. If his boss wanted him to stay, he should have stopped overworking him and focused on getting new employees. But that is history. In the end, he realized he missed being a trainer and took a break to think about what he really wanted to do.</p><p>Now what does he do? Follow his dreams? If he even knew what they were. He’s in Kalos, for one, which is already a dream in itself, but he’s not had any life-changing event happen in the region yet. I mean, he’s only just gotten settled a few days ago. He doesn’t know what to expect, so for now, he walks and explores, usually with his recently caught Floette clinging to his shoulder, sturdy as a Kangaskhan baby clings to its mother.</p><p>Naaji, Lucas’s Floette, isn’t very fond of small enclosed spaces, and so Lucas had taken her out of her pokeball before going to sleep so she would stay calm. She had slept near his pillow, and when Lucas woke up, she was waiting by the window, as if she wanted to go outside.</p><p>“Naaji, we’re going out now. Let’s go.” he set down his hand so Naaji could climb onto his arm all the way up to his shoulder, where she happily hopped, once, twice.</p><p>As he follows the carpeted (same deformed red hearts) stairs down to the lobby, the secretary immediately perks up from her half-sleep in a very obvious and amusing way, and he muffles any sound from escaping. She glances at him and he is staring right at her, so it’s awkward, and they look away. He stops by in the front desk, where she now stands, her black bun messy.</p><p>“Keys.” He says. “I’ll be going now. Thank you.” He smiles so that his dimples show.</p><p>The woman stalls for a second, then clears her throat. “Your bags, sir?” She asks in a very deep, sleep-deprived voice.</p><p>“Just my messenger bag, thanks. Good, uh, day?”</p><p>“Yes, it is now 5am, sir, I reckon that is already dawn.” Her arms seem to be twitching in a very unhealthy way. Good God. Lucas thinks he might file a complaint in the work conditions after all, for the sake of this woman, if anything.</p><p>“I hope you slept well.” She adds, much to his horror.</p><p>“Oh, uh, I did, thanks.” He didn’t mention the pillow, the rough sheets, or the apparent nightmare.</p><p>You look like you need to hibernate, please ask someone to take your place for a shift.</p><p>“Bye.”</p><p>Coumarine City is a brilliant place to begin your journey in the Kalos region, Lucas wrote in his notebook, the one he divided between research and everyday musings, the fresh breeze that blows makes your heart swell with anticipation for your new adventure.</p><p>He had walked a ways from the grassy road of the hotel to the rocky cobblestone path of Coumarine nearest to the sea. The cobblestone path embracing the sea he had crossed all the way from the Sinnoh region, his favorite part of Kalos so far, other than the monorail, and the rustic Coumarine Hotel, and the girl who gave him prizes for answering her Technical Machine questions correctly, standing at the edge of a small cliff facing the sea, where he could see the entire city, and where the breeze blew the strongest.</p><p>Naaji had suddenly ran off in front of him, and despite Lucas calling after her, it was no use. The little pokemon did not stop once she had a particular goal in sight, and Lucas could only vaguely wonder what had gotten into her as he chased close behind.</p><p>“Naaji!”</p><p>He stood in front of a blue-and-striped berry stand now, searching for his Pokemon to no avail. The owner was also nowhere in sight, and the stand stood empty for what Lucas’s eyes could catch.</p><p>“Naaji, I know you’re in there. It’s not polite to mess with other people’s things.”</p><p>Lucas pushed himself to the other side of the counter, with his head upside down, to look for Naaji.</p><p>“Are you looking for something?”</p><p>WHAM</p><p>“Ow! Huh?”</p><p>Lucas stood up and rubbed the back of his head that had hit against the right pole holding the parasol shade up in surprise. In front of him stood a man that looked no younger than 60.</p><p>“I’m very sorry, sir, I’m just looking for my Pokemon. I think she hid behind here somewhere.”</p><p>“I see. Don’t worry, boy, I wasn’t accusing you of stealing or anything. The berries in this stand are completely free of charge. Feel free to take as many as you want!”</p><p>“Thank you very much.” Lucas bows slightly, to the old man’s surprise.</p><p>“Oh! A foreigner, are we? Where from?” The old man tilts his straw hat back, much like how people in Kalos greet each other.</p><p>“Sinnoh, sir.”</p><p>Curious as to who Lucas stroke up a conversation with, Naaji comes out of hiding and settles herself on Lucas’s shoulder without him noticing. It is the old man that notices first.</p><p>“Ah, looks who’s back. That’s a fine Floette you got there, young man. I’m sure she was just looking for some water for her flower.”</p><p>“Oh, you’re right!” Lucas takes his backpack off his shoulders and knees on the floor to search for a few seconds. He usually carries water bottles with him.</p><p>The old man holds out a water bottle.</p><p>“Take it. Coumarine-branded water for the tourist.”</p><p>Lucas looks up and hesitates for a moment, then takes the water bottle from the kind old man.</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>The bottle is cold and has condensation forming on the outside. The drops of water that drip down sparkle against the sky when Lucas holds it up to read.</p><p>MARINE 100% natural water is sustainably sourced from the great salty sea of Coumarine. Thank you for buying a bottle of our fresh-tasting Marine sparkling water!</p><p>He wonders why the company who makes the water would mention “salty” in a water bottle. It’s not… actually salty, right?</p><p>The bubbles fizz to the top.</p><p>“It’s our very own Marine sparkling water! Have a taste.”</p><p>Lucas opens the cap and takes a sip. His eyes grow wide when the taste sinks in.</p><p>“It’s salty! That’s so strange.”</p><p>“You like it?”</p><p>“It’s good. It’s salty but it’s fresh. It has a familiar taste that reminds me of home.”</p><p>Lucas closes his eyes and images of the beach flash across his mind. He is a child, playing in the sand, running from the waves, laughing when they catch up to him and wet his toes.</p><p>“Sandgem Town. I used to go there all the time as a kid. I can tell why the people of Coumarine like this water so much. I’m not too different after all… although I can’t imagine someone from Snowpoint City loving this.”</p><p>The old man laughs.</p><p>“I’m glad, kid. You have a nice rest of your trip.”</p><p>The old man tips his hat as a goodbye and continues to walk in the direction of the sea. Lucas and Naaji watch him go for a moment before he gives Naaji a bit of water from the cap. She takes it with her tiny white hand and pours it over her flower.</p><p>“Squeeee!”</p><p>“You’re welcome, Naaji.”</p><p>Lucas takes a Berry he identifies as a Chesto from a container with a sign labeled “I’ll place one Berry here a day.”</p><p>Realizing this good deed, he tips $10 to the jar labeled simply as “Tip Jar” and wonders if the one responsible really did that for their own benefit or from the goodness in their heart.</p><p>He hoped to plant the berry someplace needed before reaching his next destination, Lumiose City. It wasn’t like Lucas to skip a few towns to get to a particular new place quickly, but this time he really did need to stop by the Sycamore Pokemon Lab for some... business.</p><p>Having had spent three days on Coumarine, a try of jet skiing, boat-riding, and a taste of salt water for him and his Pokemon, Lucas decided it was time to start grinding his gears again. After all, he wasn’t in Kalos just to pass the time.</p><p>As he pondered how to get to Lumiose, a thought that excited him occured; the monorail. A lover of all types of machinery, including trains and their counterparts, he hopped onto the next opportunity to ride on the transport… without knowing where it would take him.</p><p>Strangely enough, the Coumarine Monorail only had one destination with three different options; a morning, afternoon, and a night shift. He could have easily looked at where the monorail would take him, but decided it would be more fun to just get lost for a bit before finding his way naturally in the strange land of Kalos.</p><p>Since he was an adult, nobody would stop him or nitpick about how immature that reasoning was.</p><p>He momentarily gave his tourist monorail riding-access card to the front desk of the Coumarine Stop (right next to the hotel) to scan and was soon situated inside the train. </p><p>He turned and asked one of the few passengers,” Where is this headed?” without thinking of how strange that probably would sound. </p><p>The schoolkid pointed to the screen labeled,”Coumarine City; Outskirts” and ran over to his mother who sat a few meters away.</p><p>Oh.</p><p>Well, that wasn’t so exciting.</p><p>After going over his guidebook on the towns and cities of Kalos, he had mentally memorized the route to Lumiose City, where the Prism Tower gym and numerable cafes and so, so many other things were, as was the center of Kalos. He had dreamed of the city so many times from his bed in Sinnoh, oftentimes waking hot with the passion of a dreamer boy from his closed lids; the images so foggy but the feelings clear as day. He wondered if he would feel the same way when he stepped in the city of lights.</p><p>Just imagining all the things he could do and get done there made his blood boil at just the right amount.</p><p>After he got off the monorail at the other side of Coumarine City, Lucas would get down to business, or rather, his own business of indulging in childhood fantasies, though he would try to get useful information for his research team back in Sinnoh as well. If he filled out reports during the way there, he could give himself a break once he made it to the city.</p><p>Lucas takes out his notebook to organize his thoughts, but doesn't get very far as the rocking of the monorail lulls him back to sleep. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. the opposite of luminous</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Dawn, trying to find Lumiose City, finds herself in a desert in Kalos.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dawn was almost to Lumiose City… but man, this unexpected sandstorm had been really inconvenient. </p><p>She kept having to rub the sand out of her eyes. In this weather, she really couldn’t have made out how many fingers someone held up if they were a few meters away. Once upon a time, her team had rivaled the Champion’s back in Sinnoh, but any team without their trainer is lost, and she is in no position to battle in this current state. </p><p>As long as the wind keeps howling its red dust, she’s as good as a trainer with no Pokemon, or maybe she was just being dramatic; her Togekiss or Staraptor could probably help her get through a lot more easily than her being stubborn trying to do it herself. </p><p>But really… who would try using their Pokemon to fly through this storm? Dawn began to wonder how she had gotten in this mess in the first place. </p><p>“What in the world… Kalos is supposed to be mild! What’s with this random sandstorm?”</p><p>It came with no warning, just a few minutes ago, but it was now so intense that Dawn could barely make out the road in front of her. And the sand was… red. Lifting up her hand to cover her face, she closed it into a fist and rubbed her fingers together, examining the texture that dissolved in her fingers and left a red residue.</p><p>“Wait a second… this is not sand, it’s dust! Like from a specific type of rock…”</p><p>She may have graduated from trainer school, but her area of expertise was Pokemon battling and nursing, not… weather conditions. She was not a weatherwoman, especially not of a mostly unknown region.</p><p>She couldn’t even read her tour guide to see if there was anything on this phenomenon now. Her best bet was to find shelter before the storm dragged her into a lake and drowned her… She had  never been the best swimmer, especially when she can’t see.</p><p>At this point, frightened by the strong winds and too weak to buffer the harsh dust, her Infernape had gone back into his Pokeball, but Dawn could not deny she needed help any longer, and dug her hand inside her travel bag for one of her two flying types, sending out the first one she came in contact with.</p><p>“Cirrus, we need to fly as high as possible to get away from this dust!”</p><p>Her Togekiss was almost blown away by the wind when she realized the situation they were in, and held her ground with a cry. Dawn mounted him and patted his back as a sign that she was ready. </p><p>“Let’s go”</p><p>In a gust of wind, Cirrus flew up and up as fast as he could while the storm pushed against him, dragging him back just a few feet. Dawn tried to keep her eyes open but got dust in them and rubbed her eyes furiously with one arm, the other tightly holding onto some rope (for flying on Pokemon) she had secured onto Cirrus to be safe, since she had a small, but lingering reputation for clumsiness. </p><p>After a minute of muddled adrenaline, Dawn found that her surroundings had calmed down and the grains of dust no longer bit her skin, even if her eyes still stung. </p><p>Slowly opening one eye, and then the other, Dawn raised her head and was met with the vast expanse of blue sky. The horizon seemed to stretch on forever, and for a moment, Dawn felt a rush of blood to the head. The back of her neck had a cold wind pass through it, and she shivered at the sensation. As long as she didn’t look down, she was fine.</p><p>“Thank you… Cirrus,” she breathed, catching the fresh air in her lungs and regaining clarity. Cirrus made a high and peaceful sound in response, something like an electronic flute, like his usual. Dawn knew what it meant. </p><p>“Kiss?”</p><p>“Good question.”</p><p>Cirrus was not still in the sky, but flying to an unknown destination ahead. Dawn just didn’t know what forward that was, and neither did her Pokemon; North to Lumiose, Southwest to Camphrier, or any other direction. </p><p>She carefully strapped herself securely to Cirrus and brought her bag in front of her to look for something that could help her find which direction they needed to go to get to Lumiose City. </p><p>She took out a small handheld machine that she had gotten early on in her adventure in Sinnoh that could tell her their location and show her a map of the region. The device blinked to life and a glowing map appeared with a flickering arrow symbol of her location. It pointed to the direction she was heading.</p><p>“Ah...  we need to go the other way.”</p><p>“Kiiss?”</p><p>“Yeah, buddy, it’s back there.”</p><p>“Cirrus!”</p><p>Dawn chuckled lightly. Her Togekiss had learned that one from her. </p><p>She could see the lights of the city in the horizon as soon as her Togekiss turned to it, and was surprised they were visible at all in the bright afternoon sun. When she peaked directly below her from her Pokemon’s cushioned wing, like a smooth cloud, she could see the dust storm raging, and with great conviction, pointed in the direction of Lumiose, the city of light.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Next chapter someone will be making poffins!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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